Awakening to delightful living.

Amy and I love to chat about home. We could go on and on about books, blogs, and tips we’ve heard from friends that can help us to make our homes more welcoming, more beautiful, and more efficient. Between us, we have nine children to feed, clothe, and love. It takes a lot of work to keep our homes in order, and even more work when that order falls away! We love it so much in fact, that a few years back we asked some of our friends if they wanted to meet to discuss our homes once a month. To get breakfast as a group and have some time for what we considered to be professional development. If we were going to be homemakers, we should allot some time to discuss it, learn about it, and do it well. That group is still going strong and has been an enormous blessing to us, our families, and our homes. We now want to bring many of those pages of notes, tips, tricks, and new ideas to you, our readers.

This is not about having a dream house, or a home that could be showcased in a catalog. This is about creating a home that is delightful to you and your family because it is both functional and beautiful. It is about making small changes that make a big difference in how you use your home and how well it serves the needs of your family. It can be done in small spaces or large ones, a home you rent or a home your family has lived in for generations. You spend most of your time at home, so let’s work toward making that time enjoyable.

Why does it matter to have a home that is delightful? Isn’t it good enough to have a roof over your head and a place to cook meals – even if you can barely see your counters? Well, yes and no. Yes, because we should be grateful for even the humblest of spaces and no, because we weren’t called to live in disorder. As mothers and homemakers, we set the atmosphere of the homes we inhabit. The atmosphere of a home with a calm mother, who is not stressed by the chores because there is a plan in place to complete them, and who has an orderly home ready for drop-in guests will naturally be different than one with a frazzled mother, constantly feeling behind and downtrodden by her workload. We want your homes to be places of delight for your families, but also for you!

We were inspired by the Home Organization Challenge going on right now. That is a great site for inspiration and tips! We also knew that dedicating 14 straight weeks to overhauling our homes wasn’t going to work for either of us. We wanted to stretch it out over the year and do a great job in each room of our homes. Taking a full month to dedicate to decluttering, giving some thought to how the space it used and making adjustments, then adding in beauty to complement the improved function. We welcome you to join us! We can’t wait to see your photos and comments on Instagram and Facebook.